module specification

The research dissertation is the course’s greatest test of a student’s intellectual and academic skills. It affords the opportunity to analyze an aspect of human rights that is of especial interest to the student, whether that be something related to their own experience, identity or tradition, to human rights’ philosophical justification or historical progress, to some particular and distant injustice or conflict, to the effectivity of a particular law or human rights regime, or to anything else of relevance to human rights and international conflict. What is of greatest importance in the choice of subject is that it is one into which the student is motivated to research independently and in depth, and to express themselves on in twelve to fifteen thousand words.

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Although the dissertation will be submitted at the end of the student’s final study period (the summer, for a full-time, autumn-starting student), which should normally be entirely devoted to its research and composition, they will be encouraged to work toward its completion over the entire course of their study. Initially, it will be discussed with the module leader. As the student’s topic develops, tutorial supervision may, with the student’s agreement, be assigned to a subject expert.

From their first semester, students will be required to attend lectures and workshops providing assistance in identifying and defining their research topic, in selecting appropriate research methods, conducting research, examining sources, working with a supervisor, writing and presenting a dissertation, and referencing texts and avoiding plagiarism, whilst exploring the fundamentals of social science research, developing research questions and anchoring them in existing literature, introducing qualitative and quantitative methods, analyzing data and writing up findings, and writing a research proposal. These sessions will be complemented with more advanced learning resources available for students in the School of Social Sciences and Professions (including podcasts on research ethics, qualitative interviewing, focus groups, designing surveys, conducting evidence reviews, etc.). Students will engage with these materials as appropriate for their research questions and research design.

Tutorial supervision should be conducted continuously, by email and in meetings, from the first semester until completion. The timing and content of that supervision will be suited to the student’s circumstances and to the particularities of their chosen and agreed topic.

Although the dissertation is an independent piece of work, intellectual enquiry should be considered a cooperative enterprise in advancing knowledge (and, on this course, in advancing human rights). In every study period in which more than one GI7P07 dissertation is due to be submitted, the module leader will invite those due to submit to a seminar in which each student may present their findings, summarize their interpretation of those findings, outline their general thesis, and respond to their peers’ comments, questions and suggestions. (Prior to any study period in which only one student is due to submit, alternative provision will be made. This should involve both offering the future student the opportunity to participate in the previous period’s research seminar and, also, arrangement of a special meeting in which the student may make a presentation to the course leader and to which, with agreement, others may be invited.)

A student’s dissertation is the product of their own self-managed research, critical reasoning, and writing. Formal guidance and advice will be provided throughout the process of research and writing by their assigned supervisor. Additionally, the student will be prepared for research through six workshops, following which they will draft a research proposal to discuss and refine with their supervisor.

The dissertation should demonstrate its author’s ability to:

1. mobilize the concept of human rights in advancing a coherent argument supported by relevant evidence;
2. analyze a well-defined issue, using appropriate methods;
3. synthesize theoretical and empirical knowledge acquired elsewhere on the course in applying it to a research topic;
4. conduct self-directed research informing a well-structured, well-reasoned and well-written thesis;
5. discover, interrogate and use textual and other evidence in support of one’s own argument, whilst properly acknowledging and citing all textual sources so used;
6. acquire and deploy significant expertise in some particular aspect of the study of human rights and international conflict;
7. exemplify the moral and intellectual virtues and autonomy necessary to complete such a task.

Formal assessment is of a dissertation of approximately 12-15,000 words, including scholarly apparatus (and, ordinarily, a literature review), under a final title agreed by the student and their assigned supervisor. It will be impressed upon the author that what is most important is not length but argument and evidence.

https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/CB62E5FB-247A-1E32-1B4C-1AA2D239779F.html

Additional on-line resources include:
Dag Hammarskjöld Library Research Guide to UN Documentation on Human Rights http://research.un.org/en/docs/humanrights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/Home.aspx
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
https://www.osce.org
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
http://www.globalr2p.org/